Tourists ++

Too much time has passed since I last wrote! Each day that passes makes it that much harder to write... Saturday was our first full tourist day together. We didn't have any major logistics to deal with, I didn't have class and we could just DO. Alessia's boyfriend, Federico, and his parents were visiting from Mantova (Mantua) and Ale had the weekend off. So, Donia, Sam, Nate and I went to the Borghese Gallery.

Unfortunately, I had booked the reservations 2 weeks ago when we were still in the US for a 9:00-11:00 visit. I knew 9:00 reservations were early but I had read (and intuitively understood) that a museum trip would be easier for the boys to do when they were fresh. What I didn't know at that time was that the boys would be going to bed between 10 and 11 p.m. every night and a plan of leaving the apartment at 7:30 a.m. was a bad one. But, get up we did and go we did.

One tram into the center and one taxi later, we arrived to the Northeast corner of the huge and amazing Villa Borghese. With one grumpy and one quiet child, we walked through and saw the amazing sculpture, architecture and paintings there. The wonder of it was completely lost on Sam, of course, but I tried to engage Nate with some of it. "How do you think he was able to make the 'fabric' of her dress look so drapey?" and "Look how soft and comfortable that cushion looks, but it's made of rock!" But, of course, he is 7, so what captured his curiosity most was the subject of penises! Why some were covered in fig leaves and some were not - and worse! why some were broken off!

After the museum, we had planned to make for the small zoo within the villa grounds. Along the way, we found multi-person bikes for rent and so "added" that to our itinerary! The boys loved seeing all the dogs out for walks on the grounds! From there, we went to the zoo, but as we arrived, it started to rain. We stood under a little shelter for a bit, hoping it would stop. While we waited, we chatted with an Italian grandpa and his two grandsons, cousins, one from Naples and one from Rome. We tried to get the 4 boys to chat with each other, but they were all shy. My boys kept darting out into the rain for a bit of fun, but this man (and, presumably, his wife) would not let their boys get wet. Donia told me this is a typical thing, to not let kids get wet in the rain. The man clarified that it is mostly a central and southern italian thing.

We eventually accepted that the zoo was not in the cards for that day as we needed to meet Ale, Federico and Fede's parents for lunch so we took a few pictures of the turtles and koi and walked to Piazza del Popolo to meet them. After a few bits of misdirection, we found a charming trattoria (Trattoria Giggi) and shared a very nice meal, the 8 of us together. We had very pleasant conversations in Italian with Ale only every so often having to jump in to translate. The boys are becoming very open to Italian food (this time, ate tortellini with cream sauce and grilled veal) and were super well behaved. Fede's mom was very impressed with their restaurant manners.

After lunch, we parted ways and Donia, Sam, Nate and I went off to find a gelateria that we hadn't tried before. Then, a taxi to bring us and our tired feet back to the apartment.

Here's another random and amusing Sam / Italian story: while we have spoken Italian around Sam for many months and while he has been taking classes, he hasn't been exposed so much to forms of courtesy or typical daily situations with strangers in Italian. One evening in particular, we went to a bar (not like an american bar, but a place for coffee, water, snacks...), to a restaurant and to a gelateria. In all of these places, when given food, information, change, etc. I would say, "grazie mille", which means 'a thousand thanks' or 'thanks a lot". I said this without thinking, but obviously he was listening. Finally, he said, "Mom, why are you calling everyone 'Mille'? I didn't understand at first, but then had to explain... Funny guy, listening to everything!